Krampus [DVD] [2015]

Worth watching, it still might be scary for under 10s

Love this film, even though it has a dark side to it, its still a great christmas film👍

The story of a divided family forced to put their differences aside when Max loses his belief in Santa Claus due to his Families' infighting, unwillingly unleashing Krampus and his minions on the family. Opening in a busy shopping mall, we see Max lose his temper with a classmate due to him denying Santa's existence. The film cuts to him and his family at home, preparing for their relatives holiday stay. Max (Emjay Anthony) is an unpopular kid ( his best friend is his grandmother) who still believes in Santa, his sister Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen) is your stereotypical teenager, distant from her family and close to her boyfriend Derek (Leith Towers). Their parents Tom (Adam Scott) and Sarah Engel (Toni Collette) are distant due to Tom being away from home due to his job, whilst Sarah has a strained relationship with her extended family. Tom's mother Omi (Krista Stadler) speaks German, which she has passed on to Tom and Max. Sarah's side of the family arrives, instantly drawing a contrast. Whilst the Engel's are an immigrant German middle class family and relatively wealthy, Sarah's sister Linda (Allison Tolman) and husband Howard (David Koechner), with children Howard,jr (Maverick Flack), Stevie (Lolo Owen), Jordan (Queenie Samuel), baby Chrissy (Sage Hunefeld) and aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell) are a stereotypical white working class, gun-toting American family. They resent the Engel's wealth and are ungrateful for every and anything they receive. Overcoming the tension between the two sides of the family, in order to fight of Krampus, is the main external development of the film.The main internal development is Max coming to appreciate his family, regardless of their differences. Family and belief are the dual themes of the story: that family are important and to never give up on them, even though you have your differences. Max losing his belief in Santa Claus and hating his family is what summons Krampus. However, when it comes down to it, Max makes the right decision, offering himself in exchange for his families' lives. This contrasts with the decision Omi made when in the same position, to let her family be taken and not retract her wish.The conclusion, where Krampus takes Max as well as his family instead of exchanging them, before the film ends with the family on Christmas day staring at Max's bell, remembering everything, whilst trapped inside the snow globe, sends a particular message. If your willing to exchange your own live for your family, then you can spend eternity in a snow globe trapped with them. The bell reminds them of Max's original choice, and that what has happened to them is a result of him losing his belief.The beginning and ending are very strong due to the way it sets up what is to come and the message it gives at the end. The middle can be rather meandering, failing to kill of enough characters in time, leading to a mass character death in 2/3 minutes towards the end. Many of the emotional "pay-offs" don't feel earned, though that is no fault of the actors. The standout performances are Conchata Ferrell (Aunt Dorothy) and David Koechner (Uncle Howard). I honestly can't tell whether Emjay Anthony's performance as Max is great or terrible and the action can be at times frustrating and stilted, but there are enough humorous moments to not be seriously bothered by it.Having watched it several times now, it does retain replay value, but is best whipped out on Christmas eve for maximum enjoyment.

Great horror Christmas, put it on don't mention it's a horror and sit back and enjoy.

Great movie, keeps you on the edge of your seat. Came express delivery. Would highly recommend.

I have not really expected much of a lot of more recent horror features, particularly "monster mash" ones such as I consider this one to be, and all the others lately appear to be remakes or reboots as opposed to original ideas (like this one). This feature exceeded my expectations, I really liked it, it was fun, by turns amusing and entertaining, had some really great touches which did not present the supernatural threats as easy dispensed with provided the movies protagonists were lucky, plucky hardy bucks (I dont know when modern day movie makers decided curses, monsters, devils and demons where to be such push overs).The effects are good, there's some really good CGI here, it doesnt look fake, its also not over done and even when some of the creatures featured are obviously CG they still have a sort of animatronic or older creature feature production charm about them. I thought there was decent character development (considering the length of the movie), also the plot and story line trundles along fine too, the story of Krampus, malevolent Christmas spirit (devil?) who purges children (in this case families) along with his minions when they have brought his curse upon them.This movie reminded me, a little, of Drag Me To Hell, which I think if you liked it then you may like this movie too. Although other parts of it reminded me of, as I say, creature features, like Critters, Gremlins, some of the effects in Poltergeist (the original and the remake). Recommended.

I've abstained from reviewing Krampus since I first saw it in the cinema four years ago as I could never figure out what the movie's problems and strengths were, but after seeing the movie five times now and feeling the same frustrations over and over I think I've got it sussed.Krampus is best described as a combination of Christmas Vacation and Gremlins, opening with a satire of mindless Yuletide consumerism before settling in with a middle-class family in the suburbs including German grandma, emotionally distant teen daughter, and idealistic son. Their cheer is soon ruined by the arrival of extended family who bring trashy, redneck values that are at odds with the atmosphere of the household. After mocking the poor son's belief in Santa Claus and his desire for a wholesome family Christmas he decides not to mail his letter to the big man and rips it up, surrendering the shreds to the winter wind.Someone else is the recipient of that letter. Someone darker and malevolent.A darkness falls over the neighborhood, town, and world, isolating our disparate gang from any outside saviors while a host of nasty creatures invade their safe space, offing them one by one, and it's at this point the movie begins to come apart as the pacing and structure becomes far too chaotic and annoying. A clever kill every ten minutes with clearly defined rules and building mystery would have resulted in a far better movie, but Michael Dougherty fumbles this all-important middle act, leaving the audience desperate and impatient for a quick ending.The practical effects in this movie are also quite, quite appalling, especially the actual Krampus creature, which barely has any points of articulation. Even the 1987 Garbage Pail Kids looked better than this. Exactly what are his minions supposed to be? What are the rules here? Some wonderfully devilish elves appear but nothing is done with them and they disappear just as fast. The fight against the demonic toys in the attic is terribly done, with nothing clearly shot, and also confusingly intercut with a ridiculous gingerbread man fight in the kitchen. The cutting back and forth between these events neuters both to the point of irrelevance.In its favor, Krampus has surprisingly good characterisation, an immense amount of atmosphere and a cold, otherworldly feel that really helps sell this as a dark Christmas alternative. So many movies aim to be the new Christmas classic and become an annual tradition but the majority of them fail. Krampus barely makes the grade. This could/should have been a much better movie and I can understand why less patient viewers would dislike it.Krampus was shot in 2K resolution in anamorphic Panavision at 2.35:1 and it looks very nice on 1080p Blu-ray. 2K is only a smidgen above 1080p so if this is likely the best the movie will ever look it is still a good-looking Blu-ray. The aggressive DTS HD-MA 5.1 sound adds lots of atmosphere. There are a decent amount of extras.